Sunlit Sky and Sterile Ceiling
by Winged Quill
Summary: Theta Sigma is a patient in a coma ward. In his dreams, he is the Doctor. In his dreams, he has wonderful friends who travel with him. In his dreams, he runs. And in his dreams, he always ends up alone.


A/N: This was based off a post on Tumblr which read: AU in which the Doctor is a very sick little boy lying in a hospital bed in a coma and his universe is just a dream. Each of his companions represent the kids in the beds next to him and when they die or leave the ward, they die or leave in his head. Regenerations represent times he nearly woke up or nearly died and the TARDIS represents his life support machine.

I obviously couldn't pass up such a gem of a prompt, and what was originally intended to be a short drabble turned into this.

Warnings for character death and suicide

I don't own any part of Doctor Who

* * *

A terrified woman sprints into Gallifrey Hospital, two boys bouncing lifelessly in her arms. Tears stream down her face as she frantically babbles her story to the receptionist, the twins had been asleep in their shared room last night, but she couldn't wake them up. The woman behind the counter speaks in soothing tones, calling in a nurse to take the boys away.

The children's mother collapses, tears streaming from her eyes.

"What are their names?" asks the receptionist kindly, bringing up a screen on her computer.

"Th-Theta and Koschei S-Sigma."

_Unusual names for unusual children, but their time at the academy i normal for the two young timelords. Running through the red fields and mountains of their home, stressing over exams and girls, eagerly awaiting their flight exams, when they would be entrusted with a TARDIS of their own. Theta and Koschei are as close as brothers._

"We've done all we can do," the doctor informs the grief-stricken parents. "But we can't even figure out what's causing the coma. We're moving them to a different hospital, one equipped to care for them."

Theta goes first, the tiny helicopter, loaded with medical equipment and personnel only equipped to carry one patient. The parents fret over whether the old and worn equipment was truly safe, but the personnel cheerfully informs them that the TARDIS was just as good as any other life support, and that they hadn't lost a passenger yet.

"I swear it's bigger on the inside," mutters the father as he stuck his head in to have a better look. "You wouldn't think you could fit all this equipment in here."

_Koschei wakes in the middle of the night to hear the news. Theta, who had failed his exam and come to Koschei in tears the day previously, had stolen a TARDIS and fled. Koschei was numb, shocked. Couldn't Theta have waited for him? But no, he always was a mischievous and impulsive child._

"Dad?" pipes up a tired and confused little voice. The father gasped and whirled around in shock, pressing the call button, before turning to Koschei with a teary grin.

"I'm here, kid. I've got you."

"Where–Theta–"

His eyes slip shut in sleep once again. The nurses come running but, as they informed Koschei's father sadly a minute later, it was too late. He had slipped back into a coma. Still, it was good. There was hope.

_The Master, as he had deemed himself, gets ahold of a TARDIS of his own, legally, of course, and follows the self-named Doctor into the void. Time and space swirl around him as he chases his foe. When they finally met, he is more than a bit shocked. His friend had regenerated. Centuries had passed, but his Theta was no longer the same._

When Koschei is brought to the hospital, he is placed across the room from his brother, much to the annoyance of his parents, who thought it would do both boys good to be near each other.

Theta lies in a bed next to a lovely looking girl named Susan Foreman. Her adoptive parents, Ian and Barbara Chesterton, watch over her worriedly, telling Theta's parents that there are good chances of recovery, that they will all soon be transferred to another hospital.

They tell of their weird dreams, of time and space and aliens and cavemen, and of a wrinkly old man who calls themselves the Doctor. Susan is there, they say with tears in their eyes, and she's all grown up and happy.

_They follow her to a junkyard and are sucked into a world beyond their wildest imagination. But they want to go home, and soon they do, waving goodbye with smiles in their eyes._

They leave to make sure everything is right as rain in Susan's new home. She's only there for another day, before she and a boy by the name of David Campbell are transferred to another hospital.

_The Doctor slams the door of the TARDIS shut, locking it with a firm click. _

_"Go," he tells Susan, moving to the console and speaking through the microphone. "I'll be fine. You and David deserve to be happy."_

Susan and David wake not long after that. It's almost like they know each other already, and they become friends right away, talking and laughing, telling each other of strange dreams and stories.

They remain close throughout childhood, and years later, they marry. Their parents cannot explain their bond, try as they might. It's as if their love was written in the stars.

And then Theta almost dies, choking and gasping into his breathing tube for no explainable reason. The doctors rush over and flush it out, switch it, speak soothing words to the thrashing child, and soon he is back within the mists of sleep.

_The Doctor springs up, new and fresh. He's slightly shorter than before, he notices with a sigh, but at least his isn't quite so old._

It happens again not a week later, this time an incompetent orderly knocking over the life support system. The doctors race to get everything back in place, shouting orders at each other all the while, and when everything is done and Theta is stable, the orderly is fired.

_The timelords exile him and he changes his face, but he is allowed to see his friend again. But the Master has changed, thinks the Doctor sadly, become bitter and harsh, and cruel._

They place Koschei next to Theta's bed at the parents insistence, and sure enough, he wakes within a month. They bring him home a week after that, and Koschei sobs all the way, not wanting to leave his twin behind.

At night, on occasion, he dreams of a man who he is furious with for leaving him behind. They chase each other through the stars, shedding skin like lizards and switching personalities just as easily. He thinks that he may be the bad guy, but his anger for the man he chases knows no bounds.

_The Doctor and the Master run through the sky, mayhem and blood scattered behind them as they play their game, always one step ahead of the other, a game of chess that never stops._

He just wants Theta to wake up.

_He just wants the Doctor to come back to him._

And time passes, the near death experiences continue. Surely this can't be normal, can it? Falling out of the bed cannot be normal. But years pass, the near-death experiences marking the time. Seven so far.

_His fingers weaken and he falls through space, long scarf streaming behind him. He changes again, the golden energy melding to his skin and making him younger than ever, eager for adventure._

_Time passes, companions come and go. He changes. And then comes the Time War._

Theta battles for his life against the sickness that rages through his veins, sending the heart monitor crazy and leaving him gasping for breath. Perspiration runs down his face as his temperature spikes, burning and burning until it's finally over, two weeks later, his face smoothing out. Koschei and his parents can finally relax, but Koschei finds that the dreams are far less frequent.

Theta has been moved to a room of his own until they can be sure he is no longer contagious. How he fell sick in the first place remains a mystery.

_They're gone, they're gone, I killed them all, thinks the Doctor numbly, sinking the the floor of his TARDIS and watching the fireworks. Tears stream down his face as he curls up against the console. My god, I'm a monster. _

_He cries like never before, the feeling of loneliness and loathing combining and writhing in his gut, until he's had enough. He pulls a knife from underneath the console, and the TARDIS begins it's warning hum, hissing at him that this is awful, that he should stop this right now._

_Let the next me deal with this pain, he thinks as he stabs the knife through his chest, falling to the floor as the golden energy writhes around him and the TARDIS shrieks in dismay._

When they're finally sure he's in the clear, they bring in a pink and yellow girl to share his room. Rose, they say her name is, Rose Tyler.

_He isn't alone anymore, he thinks as he grabs the hand of this department store worker._

_"Run!"_

_It isn't much, but it's something, and they're flying off and the loathing is slowly getting smaller. She never finds the knife, still coated with his blood under the console, a reminder to himself of what he has done._

Theta chokes and splutters, his eyes flicker open but there's no one there but Rose, and she's young and asleep, and he's confused because this isn't the TARDIS, and wasn't he dying? He drifts back under in exhaustion, and the only unusual record is an increase in heart rate. His parents never learn what almost happened.

_He's gone and back again, completely new and excited for all the things that he and his beautiful Rose are going to see. But then she's taken from him, thrust into a parallel world, and he stands in the destroyed room in Torchwood, alone once again._

Rose's parents finally have enough to pay for a private room, and the latest technology to bring her back to the land of the living. Pete and Jackie wait for months, on edge all the while, but at last she surfaces.

She clings to her mum, mumbling about the doctor, and they bring him in for her, but she says that he's not the doctor, no, he isn't, he's taller and spiky-haired.

They eventually leave, deciding that it all must have been a dream. Months later, she catches one last, fleeting glimpse of him, before it's all gone.

Theta's an adult now, twenty-one, and his parents are starting to face the very real possibility that he may never wake up. Life support is increasing, not so much that they need to pump his heart for him, but enough. Enough to worry. He's getting worse.

Rose's dreams of the Doctor increase as she grows older, revisiting the memories over and over. One day, her flatmate finds her on the bathroom floor, blood streaming from her wrists.

_I'm sorry, _reads her note, _but I couldn't bear to live in a world where my dreams are better than reality._

_Meanwhile the Doctor has met a new girl, Martha, who isn't Rose, but she's strong in her own right. But the Master returns with his spheres and his plans, and Martha eventually goes, just as they all do._

Martha Jones wakes from her coma, turning to the man lying in the bed next to her in confusion.

"Doctor?" she wonders, before shaking herself out of it as her family comes in and clings to her. She was in a coma, they say, for months and months.

Martha returns to medical school, and eventually returns to work on the coma ward herself. Her heart pangs with sorrow whenever she goes to Theta's room to check his vitals, but she never can quite identify why.

Donna Noble is brought into the ward a few months, and Martha carefully attaches the machinery and IVs, walking out of the room when she's done, intent on having a coffee break.

_Donna and the Doctor are the best of friends, and she could hold her own in the big wide world. His heart breaks once again when he wipes her memory, and she has to leave him._

Donna wakes, but is brain damaged and confused. Try as they might, the doctors cannot bring her memory back. Its the fault of the nurse, they aren't sure which one, but she eventually finds her way out the building, muttering something about finding the Doctor.

She sees a blue box in the sky and runs out into the street, right into the path of a bus. Her body is flung to the side of the road like a discarded piece of rubbish, her eyes still wide open. She dies with a smile on her face, certain the Doctor has come to take her home.

Theta almost dies right in front of Martha, and its her quick thinking that saves his life, but they are forced to attach more machinery, tubes for his heart and for his lungs. He is now completely dependent on the wires, and the chance of him ever waking has dropped to almost zero.

A woman named Amelia Pond soon the bed vacated by Donna, and the nurse runs out of the room when he sees her. Martha learns, with a twinge of sadness, that Rory is Amelia's boyfriend.

_The Doctor crash-lands in the garden of Amelia Pond, brand new and as excited as a jumpy kitten. He grabs her by the hand twelve years later and the two run through time and space, the Raggedy Doctor and the former kissogram._

Rory tells Martha of his many strange dreams, where Amelia is awake and full of life and they run through time and space with a man named the Doctor. Martha is intrigued, and the two spend long hours chatting away. Different men, but similar adventures. Martha begins to suspect that there's a higher force at work, here.

One day, Rory breaks down, sobbing into Martha's shoulder, as he tells her of his latest dream. He and Amelia were married, he cries out, _married. _And he was planning on proposing to her in reality.

_Rory and Amy dance across the floor, happiness radiant in their eyes. The Doctor, freed from his stone prison, does excited little dance moves, twirling his arms as he spins in circles with the children. And soon they're all off again, the best wedding present that Rory and Amy could ask for._

Three months later, Amelia wakes up, and tells Rory and Martha of her vivid dream. The three sit down one day with coffee, eagerly talking and planning, scribbling down notes. They have a first draft penned before the year is over, changing their names of course, and soon the highly popular series of books is being published all across the globe. _Doctor Who _is soon being turned into a TV show, watched and adored by millions of people, and the three creators wonder how it came to this.

_Rory and Amy are gone, and the Doctor weeps. The Ponds, the glorious, glorious Ponds, the boy and the girl who waited. At least they're together, he thinks, reading the postscript, at least there's that._

Clara Oswin Oswald has always had strange dreams, but her nighttime hours are growing more and more confusing lately. She blames it all on the TV show she has fallen in love with, and never once thinks that it could be anything more. A year passes, the dreams stop, and her life goes on without more than a blip on the radar of strangeness.

_The mysterious Clara dies again and again, before finally fading from his life for good. Try as he might, he cannot find her after she is murdered by the Silence, and he begins his crusade against them, wiping out operative after operative._

A clever assassin breaks into Clara's house, slashes her throat, and flees. She adjusts her eyepatch and looks down at the scrap of paper with the name of her next target. Martha Jones. And after that, Rory and Amelia Williams. Heaven knows why her bosses want her to assassinate the creators of a TV show, but she does what they want, and doesn't complain

The next day, all three are found in their houses, covered in red. The world mourns them, and the Williams's daughter, Melody, who was caught in the crossfire.

_Word gets to him that Martha, and the brilliant Ponds, have been murdered. He sobs as hard as he did on that fateful day years ago, and contemplates the same action, only doubled so he wouldn't come back. But no, the world needs him, despite the fact that the murders are all his fault._

_He meets River for the first and last time, and knows that she will never appear in his life again. He is alone._

Theta is thirty, and the decision has been made. The doctors and nurses have agreed to let Koschei send his brother from the world, for he has decided that it is crueler to keep him here.

"I'm sorry," he tells his twin, tears streaming down his face, as he flicks off first the lung monitor, than the heart monitor. The familiar beeping stops as Theta passes from this world. Silence has fallen.

_The Earth is in flames, and soon the universe would follow. Gallifrey has returned, and Rassilon has sent him to fetch the Doctor. He wants him alive. _

_On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the Fall of the Eleventh, a question is asked._

_"Please, can you kill me?"_

_The Master looks at his old friend, weary and exhausted, pain and self-loathing in his eyes. He knows what the timelords will do to Theta. He cannot bear to hear his agonized screams._

_"Are you sure?"_

_A nod. "Do it quickly."_

_His eyes close, and the Master pulls the trigger, once, than twice as the energy starts to rise. He falls lifelessly to the ground, arms splayed out, blood splattered across his face and chest. _

_Silence has fallen._

_It is safe here, safe and warm. Theta turns his eyes to the golden sky, wonderment dancing through his gaze. Gallifrey. He is back on Gallifrey._

_"Doctor!" He turns around, the red grass crunching underneath his feet. Susan, Rose, Sarah Jane, Jack, Amy and Rory, River, Martha, Donna. Countless others, and they swarm around him and hug him, laughter filling the air._

_They are all children again, young and innocent, without a care in the world. Even him._

_"Theta," he murmurs in the middle of the group. "Call me Theta."_

Years later, Koschei dies peacefully of old age.

_He wakes somewhere warm and safe, familiar but not all the same. Gentle hands capture him and spin him around and it's his brother, young and strong and happy._

_"Come play, Ko! Rose is teaching us a new game of tag!"_

_He is introduced to everyone, and soon integrated into the group. They are friends. No more good guys, no more bad guys. Just friends._

_The grass and the mountains, the sun and the sky and the stars. The universe becomes their playground, and they dance across it with laughter in their souls_

_They run. And it's glorious._


End file.
